GMO Research Paper

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Food is something that we eat three times a day at least. Our schedules revolve around it, wondering what we will be eating for lunch or dinner and whether we will be eating in or out. We take it upon ourselves to make sure that we are receiving all the nutrients that we need from all the food groups to be healthy. However, do we ever stop to think where our food comes from or how we are able to buy a watermelon in the dead of winter at a local supermarket? The answer is simple and it is our modern agricultural process. Due to technological advances, we are able to transport our food all over the world, which enhances our diets and helps us eat well all year round. However, there have been dramatic consequences to the modern agriculture process …show more content…
GMOs are genetically modified organisms or transgenic organisms created by biotechnologists (Clark and Wallace 159). Scientists are able to move desirable genes between entirely different plant species and even between animals and plants (Clark and Wallace 159). Due to the concern for the “best” products thousands of other varieties of crops and domestic animals have disappeared (Clark and Wallace 161). If there was a disease or an infection that affected a crop not only would the crop be annihilated, but there would be no other variety, which would survive. A well-known example would be the Irish potato in the 1840s. The country only grew two types of potatoes and neither were immune to a particular plant disease that destroyed the entire crop (Clark and Wallace 161). Consequently, over a million people died in a few years because the Irish lost a staple food product (Clark and Wallace 161). If this was to occur now to a crop such as corn the results would be devastating. Corn is used in a multitude of products such as starch, sweeteners, corn oil, and beverages (Wallace and Xia). Due to its abundance in our diets if it were suddenly gone we would not be able to produce many foods that we eat or we need to find alternative ingredients. Also, the consequences of genetically modifying …show more content…
A pesticide is any toxic substance that is used to kill animals, fungi and plants, which cause economic damage to crops. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica). Many of them can only be used with certain crops or at certain points in the growing cycle (Clark and Wallace 159). This means that multiple applications of different pesticides are necessary during the growing season (Clark and Wallace 159). The extreme use of pesticides and lack of attention toward environmental issues have caused pollution as well as the chemicals entering the food chain through water, air, and soil with a noticeable impact on agricultural ecosystems and groundwater sources (Samarghandi and Reza). Water from agricultural land drainage and wastewater are indirect pesticide sources (Samarghandi and Reza). Pesticides leach from soil and plant surfaces into lakes, rivers and eventually seas where they threaten marine life (Samarghandi and Reza). Pesticides contaminate the soil and decrease the quality of the following year’s crop causing the farmer to take other steps to grow food. Furthermore, a side effect of these pesticides is the creation of superbugs because the pests become resistant to the chemicals being sprayed on them. These superbugs already exist, but they are kept at bay because farmers are able to rotate the limited number of
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